No more handwritten batch cards. No more miscounts. Just a scan – and the machine knows exactly what to do. That’s how Karsten Dietrich, Managing Director and owner of Saalfelder Wäscherei, describes the transformation that’s taken place in his laundry. He and his team made a bold shift: digitizing key production steps using SmartFlow from Kannegiesser. The result? 25% more output with the same workforce.
Step-by-Step Toward Automation
Saalfelder Wäscherei processes a wide range of textiles for hotels and nursing homes, from bed linen and towels to resident garments and incontinence products. After reunification, Dietrich’s father acquired the former East German state-owned business and gradually modernized it. Over the years, the company expanded its collaboration with Kannegiesser, starting in the ironing department, then moving into folding and finishing, and finally upgrading the washing area in 2012.
One major upgrade was the addition of a Picker before the large-piece ironer line. “In the past, our employees had to pull the laundry out of the carts themselves, which is really hard work,” says Dietrich. “Now, the picker tips the entire load out of the cart, separates the laundry, and feeds it to the machines via two conveyors.” The physical strain is gone and performance has gone up.
But it was the recent implementation of SmartFlow, including BatchPrinting, Pack&Label, and AreaMonitoring, that brought the biggest leap forward.
SmartFlow: Digital Processes, Tangible Results
Digitizing workflows with BatchPrinting brought major benefits in reliability and speed. “Now at each machine, we only scan the barcode,” explains Dietrich. “And because we’ve programmed all customers into the system, the machine knows how to fold each individual customer’s laundry.” BatchPrinting enables reliable, automated program selection. After washing, each laundry cart receives a printed ticket with a barcode. Operators simply scan the ticket at the feeding stations and the correct settings for each customer are instantly applied.
Pack&Label takes the stress out of order preparation. Every delivery gets labeled with automatically calculated article counts and customer-specific info. No more handwritten tally sheets and no more disputes over missing items. “Counting mistakes and the complaints that came with them are basically off the table now,” Dietrich underlines.
AreaMonitoring: Seeing Performance in Real Time
AreaMonitoring has helped bring more transparency and accountability to the floor. Mounted screens in key work areas display real-time performance statistics for everyone to see. “As you walk past, you can immediately see: what’s our performance right now?” Dietrich notes. He adds that this visibility has helped stabilize output across shifts. “It’s brought consistent performance into the operation,” he points out. “And things are absolutely calm on the floor.”
SmartFlow: A Foundation for the Future
For Karsten Dietrich, the biggest win has been reliability: “We’ve brought stability into the process”. Thanks to Kannegiesser’s SmartFlow, Saalfelder Wäscherei is now running a highly efficient operation powered by people, enabled by data, and ready for the future.